Scribe held for catching man "drug-handed"

LONDON, January 2: A senior British cabinet minister's son, accused of selling cannabis to an undercover journalist, is likely to escape pun...

LONDON, January 2: A senior British cabinet minister’s son, accused of selling cannabis to an undercover journalist, is likely to escape punishment with the metropolitan police reportedly recommending no prosecution.

The 17-year-old youth, who cannot be named under British laws, was arrested and within minutes bailed out, when his father took him to Kennington police station in south west London, a few days before Christmas, after the prominent tabloid Mirror had reported about the minister’s son’s involvement in drug peddling.

According to reports here, the metropolitan police report sent to the crown prosecution service last night proposes that the youth should either be cautioned or face no action at all. The sensational case came to light, when a Mirror undercover journalist, following a tip off, bought cannabis from the minister’s son at a Central London pub. A London court had on Tuesday barred another tabloid Sun from identifying the name of the senior British minister — though in the corridors of Westminister everyone is aware of it.

According to media reports here, the minister has told his colleagues that if his son is not prosecuted, he would divulge his name. The seven-day investigation by the police is understood to have concluded that no charges should be brought because the amount of drugs involved was very small.

Strangely as the British minister’s son escapes punishment for the crime and for indulging in drug selling at the pub over a period of time, the undercover journalist, Dawn Alford was charge-sheeted by the police and had to be bailed out after four hours at the police station. According to metropolitan police sources, the investigation had revealed there was a “total conflict of evidence about who did what at the pub on that fateful night” and casts doubt on the conduct of the Mirror reporter.

Mirror, which broke the story had said that its reporter Dawn Alford — known in London media circles for many undercover scoops — had been tipped off by some of the British minister’s schoolmates that the youth was indulging in regular drug pedalling at the central London pub.

The reporter along with what is described as a “full undercover team” from the tabloid started frequenting the pub and one night trapped the cabinet minister’s son into selling them cannabis, with the whole operation being filmed and recorded. The paper then tipped off the minister concerned and sought his reaction to the event with the purpose of splashing it the next day morning. However, the minister upstaged the paper by marching his son to the police station the very same night and making him confess before the police. The metropolitan police report, which would be handed over to crown prosecution now strangely pictures the young pretty blonde journalist in the report as, “splashing money around” at the pub.